Trump blithely announced a ceasefire in Lebanon despite neither Netanyahu or Hezbollah indicating they were in a mood to lay down arms. It was a precondition for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and presumably a platform for Trump to proclaim victory. Israel wants Hezbollah permanently disarmed and Hezbollah wants a withdrawal of all Israeli troops.
More than 2,100 people have been killed and 7,000 wounded in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since 2 March, including at least 260 women and 172 children. Hezbollah attacks have killed two civilians in Israel over the same period, with 13 Israeli soldiers killed in combat in Lebanon.
Lebanon has been plagued by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the late 1940s. In the aftermath of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Lebanon became home to more than 110,000 Palestinian refugees. Additional Palestinian refugees arrived after the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. Thousands of Palestinian militiamen regrouped in Lebanon, led by Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. Starting in 1968, Palestinian militants began to use southern Lebanon as a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
There has been an escalating cycle of attack and retaliation, leading to the chaos of the civil war, foreign invasions and international intervention. As of now approximately 222,000 to 300,000 Palestinian refugees reside in Lebanon now with over 90% living in poverty due to severe restrictions on employment and property ownership. Most live in 12 recognized camps, which are largely self-governed by Palestinian factions rather than the Lebanese state.
Not a background that inspires confidence about finding a peaceful solution any time soon, if ever.
There are various start charts for Lebanon and it is the 1 January 1944 12 am which seems to work best against previous events.
It is on a Neptune half return but it is the explosive, jolting tr Uranus conjunct the Mars Uranus in Gemini from August through October this year, again May 2027 and early 2028 which would be the worry. None of that looks settled and by 2028 the Solar Arc Sun opposes Neptune which will be discouraging and directionless.
Hezbollah came into existence in 1982 when the warmongering, tough-minded Saturn Pluto conjunction in Libra was in place as a response to the Israeli invasion of the country and siege of Beirut. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak stated, “When we entered Lebanon … there was no Hezbollah. We were accepted with perfumed rice and flowers by the Shia in the south. It was our presence there that created Hezbollah.”
Inspired by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 Hezbollah established strong ties with Iran and its manifesto outlined its key objectives, including expelling Western influence from the region, destroying Israel, pledging allegiance to Iran’s supreme leader. It also emphasised Lebanese self-determination.
Their manifesto issued 16 February 1985 is the one date available which has a late Aquarius Sun Mercury square Saturn in obsessive Scorpio; with Pluto in a bullishly confident square to Jupiter in activist Aquarius; and a publicity-attracting Neptune square Mars Venus.
Assuming this date has validity, there looks to be continuing aggravation through 2027, peaking in 2028 which may be a turning point with a revision of their mission direction. 2030 looks lucky and relieved.
Israel’s relationship with the Hezbollah manifesto chart looks entangled again towards the end of this decade into 2030.
Israel’s relationship with Lebanon similarly looks under pressure towards 2030.
And so it goes on. And probably will keep doing so.
Palestinian refugees elsewhere: Jordan hosts over 2.39 million registered Palestine refugees, the largest such population in the world, with most holding Jordanian citizenship. While they have rights and access to services, many face poverty and rely on UNRWA support. Roughly 18% live in ten recognized camps. Syria 450,000. Egypt 100,000.
I recognize this is an enormously sensitive area for Israelis and no doubt in the fog of war and history many things become facts which were not a reflection of the reality. But that cuts two ways and it seems undoubtedly true that Palestinians were expelled by government order.
1.In his book on the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe notes that a month after the UN resolution, the Jewish leadership embarked on the “ethnic cleansing of Palestine”.
“Plan D decided on ‘the systematic expulsion of the Palestinians from vast areas of the country’”
Uri Ram, a professor of Ben-Gurion University, reviewed The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine for the Middle East Journal and described the book as “a most important and daring book that challenges head-on Israeli historiography and collective memory and even more importantly Israeli conscience”.
2.Israelism (2023) is a notable documentary following young American Jews questioning their education about Israel and its treatment of Palestinians. Other documentaries focusing on young Israelis or the region include No Other Land (2024), showing a collective’s view on West Bank destruction, and Days of Rage, covering young Palestinians.
3.In 1947 Britain began to promote the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, a policy supported by the Jewish leadership but which immediately undermined the interests of the Palestinians, who at the time made up around two-thirds of the population, compared to one-third of Jews. In November 1947, the UN passed General Assembly Resolution 181, partitioning Palestine and awarding the Jews a state that comprised over half the country, against the will of the indigenous majority population. This began with a series of attacks on Arab villages following the vandalisation by some Palestinians of buses and shopping centres in protest at the resolution.
As warfare among Jews and Palestinians increased, the Jewish leaders’ plans culminated in a meeting in March 1948 which decided on a “Plan D”, the “systematic expulsion of the Palestinians from vast areas of the country”, Pappe notes.
Military leader Moshe Dayan in the 1950s: “What we can say against their terrible hatred of us? For eight years, they have sat in the refugee camps of Gaza, and have watched how, before their very eyes, we have turned their lands and villages, where they and their forefathers dwelled, into our home.”
Moshe Sharett (Israel Prime Minister 1954/55): “In the thirties we restrained the emotions of revenge. . . . Now, on the contrary, we justify the system of reprisal … we have eliminated the mental and moral brake on this instinct and made it possible … to uphold revenge as a moral value…. a sacred principle”
Thank you for this excellent summary! My English father used to say, “The one sure lesson of history is that suffering breeds suffering breeds suffering. If the Germans hadn’t been so beastly to the Jews (Israel wouldn’t exist).”
Yes, thank you Marjorie for taking a hard look at the realities in Palestine/Lebanon and the Middle East in general.
My old landlady back in the mid-60s was a Polish and her entire family was wiped out in various concentration camps during WWII, except for herself and a brother. She was lucky to have left her homeland just as the Danzig Corridor closed and WWII got underway. She lived in Palestine for a few years and eventually relocated to the US. I recall she described relations between the Arab and Jewish cultures as quite friendly in the early days of Israel’s existence. She lived on a kibbutz and in her view the Jewish community was not intending to take over the entire country, but to live peacefully among the Palestinians. She learned enough Arabic to communicate and deeply believed in the freedom of everyone to follow their religion, but also understand and tolerate other religions. Her efforts to promote a common language among nations (Esperanto) were idealistic but became unrealistic as time passed. She would be deeply disappointed in the world today, especially as she believed Israel would become a peace loving, tolerant society. It didn’t turn out that way.
The military complex succeeded (imo) in destroying the peace movement on all sides of the Middle East conflict. That conflict in essence is only about OIL and wars to acquire and control it. Tolerance doesn’t fit into the oil money picture unless it makes money. DJT is making a desperate effort to gain control of ME oil now, but it is extremely risky. He may not succeed, which brings China and its belt and road initiative to the fore. It will take more time, but some kind of a ‘back road’ to the oil in Iran and its surrounding countries is coming, one way or other. Meanwhile, Russia is trying to re-establish influence and regain control over the same oil, along with Turkey. It’s the biggest mess imaginable. Read Daniel Yergin’s book, The Prize, for the story (very well written and a good read, too – not overly academic).
As to astrology, I believe this situation is reflected in the progressions and current transits to the founding chart for oil, when the first gusher took place at Titusville, PA, on August 27, 1859 (noon, exact time not known).
TODAY, the progressed chart for that date has Pluto at 6 Taurus (resources from the earth) precisely in a Yod with Moon at 6 Libra and Mars at 6 Sagittarius. Also, a cluster of heavy transits in Aries are lined up: Neptune 2 Aries, Saturn and Mercury conjunct at 7 Aries, and Mars at 8 Aries are in a semi-sextile to the oil Pluto at 8 Taurus, to be followed later when transiting Pluto (now at 5 Aquarius) gets to a square to the oil Pluto at 8 Taurus.
In May of 2028 all 3 outer planets reach simultanious contact by transit with the oil 8 Taurus Pluto in one aspect or another, with Uranus at 8 Gemini, Neptune at 8 Aries and Pluto at 8 Aquarius. Before then, transiting Pluto gets to 7 Aquarius in a year, April 2027, but goes retrograde. Transiting Uranus hits 8 Gemini in July 2027 (also conjunct USA natal Uranus, the first of 3 conjunctions), but both Neptune and Pluto will be retrograde. Then all 3 are retrograde or in early degrees by transit, until March 2028 when Pluto gets to 8 Aquarius. All 3 transits will be within 1 degree range of 8 degrees only in May of 2028. Just in time for the US election fever to begin for the 2028 presidential election.
My take is that from here on, given that Trump (whose natal Mercury Rx is at 8 Cancer) isn’t exactly giving the world clear signals as to his plans, we’re in for a long ride. It won’t conclude for better or worse until 2 years from now, spring of 2028, when those transits coincide with the oil Pluto. So, now the games are on in earnest.
I should have noted that the NATAL oil Pluto is 8 Taurus 29′ Rx, located in the 6th house of the oil “birth” chart.
So, when the transits of the outer planets line up at 8 degrees in their various signs in 2028, it ought to be a significant moment. In May 2028, transiting Pluto at 8 Aquarius will reach a square to the natal oil Pluto at 8 Taurus. Pluto will sing the tune and the other two 8 degree outers, Uranus and Neptune, will be its chorus. Oh joy.
There is a good BBC documentary called The Holy Land and Us – Our Untold Stories by Rob Rinder (a British Jew) and Sarah Agha (Palestinian) about their and other family histories after the 1948 and the founding of Israel.
Honest and moving accounts…on the BBC iplayer.
Hi, Majorie, thanks. Looks like I should not get my hope up.
I believed you are talking about 2033 in the following sentence: “2023 looks lucky and relieved.”
An observation and an astrological question.
About the last paragraph on Palestinian refugees, here is a Youtube video by “Elephants in Rooms – Ken LaCorte” on “Why Arab countries ban all Gaza refugees”, where he covers the destabilising effect that those refugees have had on the Arab countries that had initially granted them sanctuary over the past half century.
And the astrological question is, does Uranus Returns always indicate wars? Or is it something unique to countries with Uranus in Gemini? The US is one example that always comes up, but India and Pakistan both have Uranus at 25 degrees in Gemini. Could their Uranus Return indicate war between them?
I have no doubt there are a destabilising element. The whole thing is a mess and has been so since the start. If I had been been turfed out of home and country I would not be exactly sweet natured either.
No Uranus returns aren’t always about war. If you put Uranus Return in search you’ll find more detail.
The history as you read in Wikipedia is not a precise description. Many Arabs , Muslims and Christians stayed in Israel in 1948 and living there together with Jewish people . One observation on the situation in Hebrew https://www.bizportal.co.il/general/news/article/20018438
I am not here to protect Israel but I when I read unbalanced review. Wiki facts about Israel have been used . I still enjoyed reading your astrology analyses
The fact that some stayed does not obscure the fact that many were displaced into neighboring countries. I know it is an acutely sensitive subject but there is little in the wiki that is not reflected in sensible, well-researched books elsewhere.
Sorry I am blocked from opening the url.
They were not displaced. They decided to leave. The belief in that time , from the Arab countries around was that Israel will not survived . They were many and Israel was small and with limited resources. The plan was to through all the Jewish to the sea.. . The local Arabs got a message to leave from the from the countries who attacked Israel. My grandma got a key from her Arab’s friend who never returned .
Marjorie, thank you for your in depth analysis on so many areas. I learn so much from your site, much more besides astrology!